


Better is better than worse, but not by much

by kikanawj



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Dealing with injuries, Injury, Injury Recovery, Just Mako and his injury from the finale, Lin is a badass, Mako Centric, Mentioned Bolin, Mentioned Korra, More to come if I decide to continue, No pairing as the focus, Post-Season/Series Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-28
Updated: 2014-12-28
Packaged: 2018-03-03 22:11:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2889734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikanawj/pseuds/kikanawj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako's injury from the Colossus mecha power core is getting better. Which is to say it's not getting worse. Which really isn't good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better is better than worse, but not by much

**Author's Note:**

> I use "bended" instead of "bent" to describe the art of bending. To me, "bent" means actually putting a bend in something. Not sure if it really matters.

“How’s the arm?” Korra asked him, guilt hiding behind her eyes, and wasn’t that just her all over. Saving the world for the umpteenth time over and still worrying about every bump and bruise on the way.

Mako smiled just like he practiced, “Much better,” he shrugged. It was true at least. After seeing a healer his arm was doing better. He was hardly in any pain during the wedding, and even now it was only a dull ache.

He’d recover in no time.

 

Bolin didn’t really believe him, even at first. After a lifetime of taking care of each other, it was hard to hide anything from him. So he relented and went to see a healer again. Same prognoses. 

The pain was lessened because the nerves were damaged. The muscle tissue in his arm was torn, 35% above and 85% below the elbow. A light fracture to the humerus. The ulna and radius were each shattered into several pieces. His wrist was equally a mess, tendons fused to the bone and cartilage from the intense heat of the spirit energies. His fingers were mostly intact, but none of the nerves had survived.

Mako made several appointments with the healer, but they did little to help. She told him that his arm seemed to almost be resisting the healing. Mako kept his arm in the sling and didn’t bother telling Bolin. He seemed to know just from looking at him.

He wondered how he was going to tell the chief.

 

He walked into Lin’s office first thing on Monday morning. There were papers piled high on her desk and she had the worst scowl on her face as she was reading over the first of them. Mako wondered if he could have worse timing.

“Finally back from your holiday?” Lin greeted him sarcastically. Mako rolled his eyes and grinned.

“Good to see you too, Chief.”

Lin looked up from her paperwork and narrowed her eyes.

“Did your uniform go on break too?” Lin sat back in her chair.

“No,” Mako shuffled his feet, “Listen, Chief, I don’t think I can come back to work,” Mako’s mouth tasted like chalk. 

He loved his job as a cop. Sure he’d also loved being a pro-bender and traveling with the Avatar, but he felt so…at home in the precinct. Like the first time he’d been able to buy himself a new pair of shoes. All the other pairs he’d had worked and did the job, but there was nothing like a shoe that fit. 

“Are you quitting?” Lin asked him sternly.

“Believe me Chief, I don’t want to,” Mako said earnestly, “But with my arm out of commission, I’m not fit for duty.”

Lin glanced at the cast and sling, “Out of commission?”

“Broken. Muscles torn. Healers say it won’t ever be back into working order,” Mako told her in a lifeless tone. “I can’t drive a car or motorcycle. Can’t bend like I used to. Can barely put on my own pants.”

That last one stung. Bolin had been helping him get dressed ever since the Battle of the Colossus. He knew his brother didn’t mind, but he did. Simple things he’d never thought about were now difficult or impossible. His cheeks colored with embarrassment.

Lin gave a long suffering sigh and stood up. She walked around her desk and leaned back on it. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at Mako.

“That’s the worst excuse I have ever heard. I’m not about to lose one of my finest detectives because of a bum arm,” Lin smirked, “I will see you here tonight, 8-o-clock sharp, and you’d better be in uniform, detective.”

Mako was speechless. He stared at Lin like she was insane.

“Now pick your jaw up off of the ground and get out of my office,” Lin ordered as she returned to her paperwork.

“Yes, Chief,” Mako saluted and scrambled out the door.

 

Mako was all sorts of confused and nervous when he met with Lin at 8. He’d been imagining what kind of solutions she’d been thinking up for his injury. Would she assign him a full time partner? One that would no doubt be there to keep an eye on him and coddle him and ruin any chance at actual police work. Would she stick him on permanent desk duty? Was he going to be the new receptionist in the HQ lobby? He’d rather be serenaded by Wu. Well, almost.

Or was she going to agree with him and remove him from the force? Would having the day to think about it lead her to the same conclusion he’d reached?

He knocked on her office door and entered at her request. She was standing by her desk, face stern as usual, but she was out of uniform.

Okay, now he was confused. Since when did Lin have normal clothes? And when would she ever be caught wearing them at the office?

“Chief?” He asked nervously. Lin motioned for him to shut the door and sit down in one of the chairs. He did and she sat down opposite him.

“Now before you start gushing or blubbering or anything of the sort, I want to make perfectly clear this is in no way a gesture of affection. You’re a member of my force and I would do this for any of them,” Lin said in a brisk manner.

Mako nodded, still confused.

Lin bended a long box from on top of her desk into her arms. She slid off the top and revealed a bar of dull metal.

“Take off your sling and hold out your arm,” She said softly.

Mako did, wincing a bit as he stretched the burnt skin. Lin bent the metal like it was water, molding it an inch away from Mako’s arm. She carefully pulled and shaped it until it was in several plates, each aligning with the sides and contours of the arm and hand. She slowly pressed them against his arm and started inter-locking them with each other. She wove tiny strips of the metal in between the plates and around the joints of the hand and wrist. It took her a good hour to finish delicately weaving the metal together.

She bended a seam on the underside of the arm, from the wrist to the elbow, and with a flick of her wrist, put in a clasp at the end. She finally leaned back and smiled.

“Well, give it a try,” She smirked.

Mako turned his arm over and admired the metal cast. It was lighter than he thought it would be. He tried to wiggle his fingers and was surprised when they actually moved in the metal. Well, to the limited extent they actually moved.

“Punch the wall,” Lin suggested.

“Chief?”

“Just punch the wall,” Lin rolled her eyes.

Mako did as he was told, using his other hand to curls his metal covered fingers into a fist, and punched the solid metal wall. Softly. He didn’t feel a thing. He hit it a bit harder. Still nothing. His face broke out into a grin.

“Chief, I- I don’t know how to thank-”

“No gushing, remember? And you haven’t even seen the best part yet, here,” She lifted his arm and pointed at the clasp. “When you want to take it off, you twist right and pull out,” She did and the seam opened along the underside. “To put it on you push in and turn left.” She did and the seam closed. “And to lock the fingers and wrist in place you slide it forward until you feel a click.” She did and Mako pushed against his fingers. He couldn’t move them. He looked at Lin in awe.

“Chief,” Mako felt his eyes watering. Lin gave him a stern look.

“My sister may have married an engineer, but who do you think designed the metal bending suits?”

Mako raised an eyebrow, “Toph?”

Lin rolled her eyes, “It was Sokka, actually. And who do you think has been upgrading them for the past decades?”

Mako smiled and nodded his head, “Our most esteemed chief of police,” He said with a cocky grin.

“You’re damn right. Now get out of my office! I expect you to report to duty tomorrow morning, 6 am sharp and in uniform, Detective,” Lin dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

Mako clicked his heels and saluted her. He opened the door and almost had it closed behind him when he shot back a quiet, “Thank you, Chief.”

Lin shook her head and stared out her office window. She had a feeling Tenzin was going to tease her about this for a while. She took a sip of her cold coffee and resolved that she was okay with that.

No member of her force was going to be turned away because of a handicap. Not as long as she was Chief.


End file.
